Corner

We had an excellent class today in Sunday School. We began by reading The Runaway Bunny, a children's book I had brought for a baby shower gift. It is a wonderful little book with a sweet message. Next we revisited a lesson we had a couple of weeks ago on the role of women in the church and our relationship with men. This is a difficult subject, and we are grappling with it together. We talked about the difficulties involved and further discussed some of the ideas we had dealt with earlier. I knew the girls in the class had bristled somewhat at the whole "submission" idea, and I wanted to encourage them that we have to line up with scripture whether we like it or not.

Then we got to Rob Bell's DVD called Corner. It discussed the part of the law given to Israel which said that as they reaped their crops they were not to pick them clean, but they were commanded to leave some of the crops (a corner) for the poor, the widow and the immigrant. And Rob's point was, "It's not fair. It's not fair that I do all the work and someone else benefits from it. God's not fair." Haven't we all felt that way? And this played right into what we had talked about earlier in our discussion about women.

Grace isn't fair. It isn't fair that one person dies, and another lives. It isn't fair that the thief on the cross prayed and was saved. It isn't fair that Inez got to return to the US legally when others are still waiting, others who did the right thing from the beginning. No God's not fair; grace isn't fair. And THANK GOD FOR THAT!

Because we have been saved, liberated, freed, we have been commanded to care for those who need our help. Not just for their benefit, but for ours. Helping those in need changes us. It expands our life.

And so we have begun to talk about what we need to do. As a class we are exploring options for something we need to get involved in to meet the needs of others, to right an injustice, to heal a wound. What should it be? We are open. We have some ideas. We may have to try a few different things to find the best fit for us.

But we're thinking. It's exciting!